Reanimator Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Dark Depths
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Swamp
1 Scrubland
2 Marsh Flats
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Lake of the Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Vampire Hexmage
3 Griselbrand
3 Grave Titan
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
1 Unburial Rites
4 Entomb
3 Collective Brutality
4 Thoughtseize
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Tidespout Tyrant
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Coffin Purge
1 Dread of Night
2 Duress
1 Massacre
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Pithing Needle
Other Card Choices
Platinum Angel
Toxic Deluge
Serenity
So far I have a ~75% win rate in ~50 matches playing the deck on Magic Online. It's basically two-card monte, but gets to play two of the fastest broken combos in Legacy. The pieces synergize well (you can reanimate Hexmage to make a 20/20), and you have the backup plan of using Rituals and Lake to hardcast your guys.
So far, the bad match-ups appear to be Miracles, Death and Taxes, and Storm. Delver is surprisingly favorable as you attack from a variety of different angles.
Props to ewlandon for coming up with the deck.
We have both been streaming it at twitch.tv/griselpuff and twitch.tv/ewlandon
Great to see others brewing this as well. I've been testing a Reanimator Depths list for the past half a year or so, but using Living Wish and Primeval Titan in the main. I know Living Wish has traditionally been too slow in most lists but I like the utility and it's just a fun card.
How has the Unburial Rites worked out for you? I tried it a few times but it just seemed so slow.
PS: For added discussion, here's a Renaimator Depths list that Top 8'ed a tournament in Japan back in early May.
I had some decent results when I ran Jund Depths with a Reanimator sideboard. Against the likes of DnT, the important pieces were Smallpox and Punishing Fire package, plus Vengeful Pharaoh can provide decent control.
A somewhat transformation sideboard could be something to consider.
I think a few Not of this World could overperform in this deck, protecting Lage, Griselbrand, and sideboard targets (Iona).
Originally Posted by Acclimation
If anyone has any ideas for beating storm other than being less unlikely or putting in 4x leyline that's my main concern right now.
My first intention was adding Iona or Sire of Insanity to the maindeck, but i feel like Platinum Angel is the better fit as it is castable G1 (no idea what to cut though). Helm/Leyline of the Void works pretty good against storm and there is the option to play Trinisphere with Ritual in the deck.
Kambal might be worth a try, not sure though.
@Ewlandon
After playing B/R Reanimator for over a year now, discard is key to winning the matchup.
I recommend Children of Korlis + Unmask.
Unmask will help you strip their hand after a fast Griseldad without worrying about extra mana.
Children will help facilitate drawing enough discard spells // putting you out of range of a Storm Count: Three kill after casting Reanimate on Griselfather.
A few things (this is also the Queller guy from your shop btw), I think 4 Pithing Needle is going pretty balls out. I realize it's for a mix of Karakas and Waste, but you could (branching into the reason I'm posting) go with a Tutor board. My board effectively has 4 needles, while running 2. Similarly, you can run 2 canonist against Storm and potentially tutor Canonist with either Entomb->Reanimate or with Tutor EoT, cast. This often buys you 1-4 turns against storm in all but the "they have both the nuts and the kill card in hand."
Your combo relies on only one spell (Hexmage) or an instant->sorcery (allowing you to cast across turns), giving you the ability to Entomb on their turn, reanimate on yours, even with canonist out. It could also branch out how you build your sideboard. If going this way, a singleton Sculler can also be hit by both tutors, and sculler is better than standard discard when you need it, because they can't flash back the spell. Lastly, ETutor can act as copies 2 and 3 of Seal of Cleansing, and your opponents (like myself) dropping Humility, Cage, Rip, etc.. can be insta-gibbed by a well timed cleansing.
Second point: you should probably just run Cabal Therapy and get good with it. Thoughtseize is alright, but it actively hinders Reanimate and Griselbrand, and if the opponent has a hand with multiple interaction points you are unable to do anything about it. Therapy is also live from the grave allowing you to tutor interaction via a Hexmage or Grave Titan (!!!)
To summerize:
-2 Pithing Needle +1 Tutor, +1 Canonist (and consider a second tutor)
-4 Thoughtseize, +4 Cabal Therapy
Side note: Against Storm you should always start therapy by naming LED. LED Is the best ramp spell and enables Tutor even with awkward hands. Secondly, it's not live in the grave so PiF doesn't interact with it. LED hands induce keeps with Storm quite often, because of it's insane ramp-ness.
Not a terrible plan but I think it's way too slow (the tutor plan) to beat storm, I think Sire plus discard is how we beat storm just have to nut them and dodge discard basically.
I've discussed therapy and in the end I think too many cards are good against us unlike with storm where you just name fow.
As someone who loves Not of this World I would agree without you if not for the fact that Irona and Griselbrand don't need protection (one is protection, the other refills your hand with redundency).
Then again, I never followed through on playing it in this deck, so I'm happy to be wrong here.
I have a living wish version built as well. It's actually not bad; the living wish toolbox is really quite strong. You can get hexmage, depths, stage, or griselbrand (when you have brutality or led to pitch it). But you can also fetch loyal retainers as a reanimation "spell". Karakas as a silver bullet. Even ethersworn cannonist. It also allows you to run a tin fins package with children of korlis and labman or emrakul in the board instead of taking slots in the main. That plan is a little less consistent than when those cards are in the main though.
In the end, I've found that wish is maybe just a little too slow, and it doesn't sideboard as well because you have to devote most sb slots to wish targets. But the deck is certainly promising.
1 Ruric Thar for the Storm matchup? Sire seems pretty damn good.
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Played vs Ewlandon yesterday. I got griselbranded g1 and kept a no land, 2 leyline of the void, fow+blue cards hand for g2 and hexmage hit me 10 times. I really like the idea with an extra
angle not only from a 20/20 but from that 2/1 aswell. Very good way to get around Jace/chalice on top of killing me :)
Re: the decklist.
1) I don't really understand 3 grave titans, how has it been working out? Good vs push and a way to combat deathrite/karakas but seems so... fair. If you want a castable fatty maybe a 1of gurmag angler/tombstalker fits the bill over the third? the yard will be pretty full so it's a lot easier to cast and flooding on grave titans with petals/dark rituals allready spent seems bad.
2) what about unburial rites? Isn't Animate dead just better?
3) As a way to fight combo/stackbased decks for monoblack the best thing there is has to be discard. I strongly advice 2 Liliana of the veil and 3 Hymn to tourach in the 75. This gives you a "plan" vs combo (Everything but sneak attack need more than one card in hand to win). It's also a great setup for blue decks where you side out your 1-for-2 cards for 2-for-1's instead.
Liliana pitching fatties is great while she also kills some hatebears and a deathrite in a pinch. Discard also goes way up in value for postboard games where your opponent has to respect the fast combo and keep a slower hand leaning on their disruptive sideboard cards. I like 1 Liliana main and 1 sideboard and the hymns for postboard games. I have no idea how to construct this sideboard, which cards are currently cemented and which are not?
Good job with the deck! :)
1) 6 mana is a pretty easy point for the deck to get to; even with rituals/petals it's a turn 3 plan (Urborg + Swamp, or 2 Swamp -> float mana + Lake). It is a pretty good target against Karakas, fog effects (Mother of Runes, Wirewood, Quirion, Scryb, and again Karakas), LotV [not Leyline], and Maze of Ith. It is also specifically the correct choice against the mix of LotV, Maze, and Tabernacle all at the same time. Against non-FoW decks it's usually Grisel first, but Titan is the eventual backup wincon with highest chance of success [especially true in Depths mirrors].
2) could play either, Unburial is an Entomb target in a deck that can pretty easily generate 4-8 mana (this deck hardcasts quite a few Grisels).
3) this deck generally isn't ahead on board, and Lilly doesn't really fix that...you also can't really +1 her and support Collective Brutality escalations, and at the end of all that she'll never win a game. Any time you're in a Dark Ritual deck I think you're more interested in Liliana, the Last Hope as a turn 1 play that says opponent has 4 turns to live; she's not good vs combo, but she is one of the highest quality wincons with a +1 this deck can support and pretty good alongside Hexmage backed up by Entomb finding Darkblast (or any creature you're missing with a -2 activation, or just get the creature back to escalate Brutality again). Hymn or Sinkhole would be fine, but if you really wanted to kill combo specifically it's not that hard to power out a 3-Ball or Nether Void. The question against combo though would be why aren't you sideboarding in a way that makes your deck faster; everything listed previously seems worse than a turn 1 Grisel. I think @TTX has the right idea, 5 copies of a silver bullet (the other 4 copies being Entomb); if you can get away with one sideboard slot for bad combo matchups, it seems like the right call versus trying to turn into Pox.
This deck looks super sick! How do you sideboard against some of the more common matchups?
I have been playing Tin Fins Depths based on u/j_blinder mtgo:clone103's list that he has been playing online. It's definitely a lot of fun, a bit different from the lists here on the reanimator side but the same concepts apply. Win cons here are Lab Maniac after abusing Grisel/Children combo, Tendrils for lethal after a big Grisel turn, or Marit Laige for the win. LED plays great with Unburial Rites, Exhume and Shallow Grave. Can also be used to activate Thespian's Stage.
Here is the list I have been using:
4 Dark Depths
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2 Swamp
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Vampire Hexmage
1 Children of Korlis
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Griselbrand
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
3 Exhume
4 Shallow Grave
2 Unburial Rites
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
Sideboard:
2 Collective Brutality
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre
2 Not of This World
3 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge
I have only played it at one actual tournament so far, but I went 3-0 beating RUG Delver, Shardless BUG, and Death and Taxes. Only dropped 1 game to DnT. You can really keep people guessing about your plans, and bait them into countering non-key spells. The deck's creator has a record of something like 75W-30L on MTGO since he has been tracking.
I recently built this deck as my first go at the Legacy format and have competed in about 5 MTGO Legacy Leagues so far with it. I have yet to 5-0 but I have managed to go at least 3-2 or 4-1 in all leagues. Very fun deck to play. I will be following this for any updates. Best of luck to all.
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Took a version of Reanimator Depths that I've been tinkering with over the last few months to a weekly last night, going 3-1. My list is different from the ones gaining popularity recently in that it's Black-Green and leans a little more into the Depths combo with Crop Rotation and Living Wish.
3 Dark Depths
3 Thespian's Stage
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Primeval Titan
2 Grave Titan
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Reanimate
2 Exhume
4 Entomb
3 Crop Rotation
3 Living Wish
4 Dark Ritual
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
4 Thoughtseize
3 Collective Brutality
Sideboard
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Ashen Rider
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Pithing Needle
I defeated High Tide, UR Delver, and Sneak & Show, but lost to Miracles in my last round after a mull to four and then going all-in on the wrong side of my deck in the second game. The deck felt pretty decent all night, though likely the Primeval Titan is a bit too cute and should really just be Griselbrand. I think my next iteration would cut one of each Titan in favor of Griselbrand.
When I have time I'll post my Living Wish list. I think LW should push you more into the territory of using Lions Eye Diamond. It opens up lines such as Living Wish/respond crack LED for WWW, discarding Griselbrand, fetch Loyal Retainers/sac reanimate. Or just fetch and cast a silver bullet like Eidolon of the Rhetoric (is that the storm hoser?).
This could be really good too, but Wishes and LED go together like peanutbutter and jelly so I'd recommend at least giving them a try. I don't personally have ESG or Crop Rotation. Maybe that's really good/better.
Edit: Just realized your list has 0 Griselbrand. Yes, definitely fix that! If you have been doing well with reanimating Primetime being plan A you'll be doing even better with Griselbrand.
Made a video series!
https://www.channelfireball.com/vide...imator-depths/
Still putting up solid results with this:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/700937#paper
4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 4-1, 5-0, 3-2, 2-3 in my last 8 leagues. One of my losses was due to playing turn 1 Stage, LED, turn 2 dark depths and then misclickung and discarding my hand to remove a Depths counter instead of making a 20/20.
After playing both, I'm still of the opinion that the Fins kill with Laboratory Maniac is stronger than the Grave Titan plan C, though it may just come down to familiarity with the lines the deck wants to take and playstyle.
I think the Grave Titan plan is better against the delver decks and the grixis control without delver, but that matchup is already good for the Fins version. I'm 9-3 vs Delver.
The fins plan is better vs new miracles, which is a tougher matchup for both versions. This is because if the fins version makes griselbrand, it can win that turn, even through karakas and/or swords. I recently won a game where my opponent had Jace active for 3 turns, Gideon of the trials with an emblem, and had just made 4 angels with entreat and faresealed to the top. I entombed to shuffle (GB was already in gy), drew exhume and fully comboed, including making hexmage to kill his Gideon before winning with labman. There are spots that you can get out of that would be unwinnable for more traditional reanimator builds.
The fins version is also much stronger vs combo, especially ANT/TES. It's a matchup that I'm quite happy to face and I think Grave Titan versions will struggle some.
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